Putin admits Russia shot down passenger plane that left 38 people dead

Vladimir Putin has admitted that Russia was involved with the shooting down of a commercial flight that crashed on Christmas Day.

While Christmas is normally a day of celebration for millions, the world recoiled in horror as news broke that a commercial Azerbaijani plane was shot down on Christmas Day 2024.

The flight was from the nation's capital, Baku, and was heading to the Russian city of Grozny before it was shot down.

The plane crash resulted in the death of 38 people on board, while 29 survived as it attempted to make an emergency landing.

According to officials in Kazakhstan, where it crashed, those aboard the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyz nationals.

At the time of the crash, the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev said: “The information provided to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing."

The Azerbaijan Airlines flight had 67 people on board (Emergency Situations of Kazakhstan/Anadolu via Getty Images)

However, not long after, reports began circulating that the plane was downed by a Russian air defense system.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has now conceded that this is in fact what occurred, although he noted that it was not intentional.

He said that the missiles fired by Russia’s air defenses were meant to target a Ukrainian drone in the area, and in actuality exploded near the aircraft, causing the plane to go down.

Putin said: “The two missiles that were launched did not hit the plane directly; if that had happened, it would have crashed on the spot, but they exploded, perhaps as a self-destruction measure, a few metres away, about 10m.

"And so the damage was caused, mainly not by the warheads, but most likely by the debris from the missiles themselves. That is why the pilot perceived it as a collision with a flock of birds, which he reported to Russian air traffic controllers, and all this is recorded in the so-called 'black boxes'."

Vladimir Putin has said he will punish those responsible (ALEXANDER KAZAKOV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

While at a meeting with Azerbaijan’s president in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, Putin swore that he would punish those who were responsible for the incident and compensate those impacted.

He did add that it would ‘probably take some more time’ to fully completely understand the situation, however.

He said: “It is our duty to give an objective assessment of everything that happened and to identify the true causes."